The Company and Jong Jubal are EMG European Champions 2017

The Company came out on top after a thrilling Premier Class finals night in Kerkrade.

It was a worrying start to the day at Parkstad Limburg on Saturday when torrential rain poured down on the stadium. The start of prelims was delayed in an effort to wait for the rain to pass. Inbhear Mor Performance Ensemble came on fifteen minutes later than planned. The worries soon turned in to applause and laughter as Inbhear Mors smiles and an impromptu pre-show fun and guitar playing lightened the mood. Inbhear Mor were later named by many in the stadium as a highlight of the day with their thoroughly entertaining programme “Pulse”.

Performances followed from fifteen corps in total during prelims. As the scores came through, it was clear that we were going to have tight competition to make finals. The top three were grouped together with high scores between 87.55 to 89.00. The tenth qualifying place was also tight on scores, with Cadence going through with 70.80 for their show “The theory of everything”.

Five corps took part in Junior Class Finals. There were a couple of groupings in the scoring, with 5th and 4th separated by just over two points, while Johan Friso edged ahead of Jong Beatrix as runners up with their production “United”. A trombone solo from Jong Jubal hushed the stadium as everyone watched the opening of “Sensei” from the corps who succeeded in winning Junior Class finals with a score of 80.75.

The weather cleared for finals and a packed stadium and thousands of webcast viewers at home were treated to a feast of drum corps. The Company were coming fresh from their victory in DCUK and an excellent prelims performance, while Kidsgrove Scouts had performed immensely well earlier in the day and were only a fraction of a point behind. Jubal were a certainty to improve on their prelims score. It was impossible to predict.

Scoring in the middle of the ten was tight, as 0.35 separated Spirit of 52 and Starriders. The Italian corps Unity edged just ahead of the group to 5th place with one of the stand-out performances of the night.

Jubal did improve by almost two points, and finished in third place. Kidsgrove Scouts both passed the 90 point mark and gave some of the most passionate, emotional and technically excellent performances seen at the stadium.